BU HEAD OF FINANCE EUROPE

The Client:

Our client is a private sizeable industrial group, with HQ in Italy and business in Italy and abroad. They are a global player, a leader in their business, in a market with strong growth potential; they are on a size of 1.5Bn+, are organized by BU and operate in more than 20 countries, with over 5000 FTE. Their industrial footprint is international, across Europe, Asia, and Americas.

They are a portfolio company of two major PE Funds, and they are facing a growth and transformational phase in parallel, both with strong commitment.

In this context, Finance is a leading actor, and is positioned to be the key Business Partner to help the Executive team achieving the Group targets; a BU Head of Finance Europe (HoF) is now needed, to help shaping a “best in class” organisation.

The Role:

The HoF Europe, will report to the BU Finance Director, and will be accountable to provide world-class Finance and Accounting expertise.

The goals will be:

1) Bring entities’ Finance Department to a best-in class level that delivers value to the Business

2) Drive significant process and organizational changes. Act as point of reference for processes deriving from an intense M&A activity, shape or reshape them consistently; act as a key partner of Corporate functions in designing and implementing new IT / BI platforms

3) Implement best-in-class processes and systems, in close cooperation with the Group.

The critical priorities will be:

• Manage the day-to-day finance operations of the BU legal entities in Europe, ensure excellence in financial cycles, and compliance with strong controls: able to generate financial discipline
• Implementing best-in-class processes and systems to deliver accurate, reliable, and timely financial statements for all entities in scope, with an important focus on enhancing local ERPs
• Lead organizational changes and synergies in line with simplification of accounting process, including inter-company transactions
• Integrate recent acquisitions and simplify legal entity set-up

Functional responsibilities will encompass:

Accounting & Reporting:

• Manage financial operations of all European legal entities, while establishing common systems and processes
• Ensure financial statements of entities in scope are accurate, reliable, timely and compliant with all Group guidelines and regulations; Ensure statutory financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial situation of the different legal entities in their local GAAPs
• Guarantee compliance with Tax and other local regulations including transfer pricing
• Provide independent view of risks and opportunities on the P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow
• Manage relationships with auditors, banks, insurance brokers, lawyers, tax and other authorities and/or support group functions in doing so
• Support FP&A team to ensure data quality of Company BI
• Lead and develop the European Finance and Accounting team (almost 30 people) in multiple countries

People

• Lead, manage, coach, and develop the function in the region; address upskilling initiatives to shape the appropriate skills and attitude, and thus support the ambitions of the business to grow and transform for the better
• Establish and maintain an environment of internal control and integrity

Process & transformation:

• Streamline, re-design and automate accounting and reporting processes, with the aim of building a scalable and efficient organization.
• Continuously look to improve processes, while eliminating inefficiencies and automating whenever possible

Business Support & Project Management:

• Exposure to Executives and Corporate functions to help implementing or addressing Corporate initiatives at BU level.

Qualifications & Experience:

Degree in Economics / Business Administration. MBA / Accounting qualification would be a plus. And:

• At least 10/12 years’ experience with dual track in: 1) Audit and Corporate, or 2) Consulting and Corporate, in all cases with a preference for PE backed companies with track on transformation projects. This means: 1) 360 understanding of finance; 2) knowledge and implementation experience of IT/digital tools to support the business; 3) skilled in reporting, familiar with treasury; 4) extensive experience in managing auditors, banks, etc.
• Organisational change track record: must have 1) Demonstrated experience in driving organizational changes by optimizing processes and using automation, while increasing added-value and professionalization; 2) Already performed value stream mapping (or similar) to drive optimization; 3) Experience with robotic process automation (RPA) or other automation initiatives a big Plus; 4) Proven track record of continuous improvement and simplification.

Capabilities will include:

Leadership and Business Judgement

Driver of change and continuous improvement:

• Self-confident, able to create team spirit and influence the organisation, while managing remote teams.
• Hungry attitude to process optimisation and automation. Familiar with methodologies around improvement, like lean, value stream mapping, visual management and Kanban boards and related tools (Trello, Wekan)

Rigorous and result oriented

• Able to think high level, yet quick in turning to details and analytics whenever necessary.
• Not just an accountant but a business partner; able to create clear responsibility, and to hold people accountable. Can address low performance and is able to push for team reduction
• At own comfort in fast-paced environment, requiring quick delivery; at ease with ambiguity.
• Able to challenge the status quo, bring across a performing culture, while listening and navigating through business criticalities
• Passionate for execution, and for making things happen. Gets excitement from rolling his sleeves to drive impact

• Effective communication skills, along with interpersonal maturity and customer centric mentality

Languages: Full proficiency in spoken and written Italian and English is a must. Fluency in Spanish would represent a plus

Location: North of Italy